Winter Garden, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Winter Garden, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Winter Garden lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Winter Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winter Garden — the short answer
Winter Garden, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Orange County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Winter Garden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winter Garden's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winter Garden
Each reading below is measured for Winter Garden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWinter Garden runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Winter Garden) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWinter Garden sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Winter Garden is in
Winter Garden sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winter Garden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Winter Garden
Every plant below cleared Winter Garden's own zone 9b and its 335-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winter Garden?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Winter Garden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winter Garden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNRIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SUNRIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FLORIDA DEP EMERALD DRY CLEANERS DSCP SITE ID ERIC_5004Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- APTIM ENVIRONMENTAL & INFRASTRUCTURE LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- UNITED OIL CO. #228Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CONOLEY CITRUS PACKERS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #881Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #27426-01Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DEERFIELD PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CIRCLE K #7490Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SPEEDWAY #6474Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winter Garden's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Winter Garden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winter Garden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winter Garden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winter Garden, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Winter Garden. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Winter Garden
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winter Garden average
Your land is one point inside Winter Garden
Everything above resolves to Winter Garden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Winter Garden Average
Winter Garden Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Winter Garden
- ●One soil character for all of Winter Garden
- ●Frost dates read at Winter Garden's scale: Jan 20 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winter Garden's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winter Garden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winter Garden, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winter Garden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winter Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winter Garden average
How we know this about Winter Garden
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Orange County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Winter Garden
When does frost risk typically end in Winter Garden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winter Garden typically lands around Jan 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 10.
When is the first frost in Winter Garden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winter Garden typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 335 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winter Garden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winter Garden sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Dec 7, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winter Garden?
The federal record around Winter Garden is a meaningful one — 804 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (428), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Winter Garden?
From about Nov 21 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winter Garden's scale — its 9b band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winter Garden's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Winter Garden’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Winter Garden's own scale — the 10,490 acres it covers and 804 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winter Garden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 804 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winter Garden, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winter Garden's boundary and the 10,490 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winter Garden's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Winter Garden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Orange County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winter Garden's 10,490 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange County
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winter Garden's 10,490 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winter Garden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,490 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Winter Garden-wide figureread your own land →
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